In
his book about life at L’Arche, Nouwen
observes rather surprisingly, ‘The dinner
table at the New House was where most of Adam’s miracles took place.’ He
goes on to say that Adam didn’t do anything. He wasn’t curing the blind, the
lame and the dead.

‘He was just there. But his ‘being there’
touched people’s hearts and souls in a profound way … there was a discovery
that he, we, and the whole world had a new meaning, a new significance, a new
purpose.’ he writes.

And
so it was that one of Nouwen’s friends came to visit. Murray was appalled that
the former university teacher had given up his career to care for people with
developmental disabilities. He was afraid his writing would stop.

At
first Murray wanted to stay in a hotel but Nouwen insisted that he stay in the
Guest Room at L’Arche. Surprisingly, the rich and successful businessman was at
home there.

One
morning, Murray was sitting at table beside Adam. Nouwen was helping to feed
Adam. There was an urgent phone call. Nouwen left and asked Murray to continue.
Despite his anxiety, he agreed.

Later
on, he told Nouwen that during the next half hour as he sat with Adam, he began
to see him not as a disabled person completely different from himself ‘but as a beautiful human being who shared with
him many vulnerabilities’.

Despite
his successful business career, he had his
own struggles, fears, failures and disabilities.
As Nouwen observes, ‘Sitting
beside Adam, helping him with his breakfast, was for Murray a moment of grace
as he realised that he and Adam were brothers.’

For
the last ten years of his life and ministry, Henri Nouwen, a Dutch Roman
Catholic priest and acclaimed spiritual writer, was chaplain at a L’Arche
community in Canada. His last book was about Adam, a young man with several
disabilities including an inability to speak.

As a
result, Nouwen observes that the dominant characteristic of Adam’s life was the simple posture of waiting.
Because he could hardly do anything for himself, he had to wait for others to
attend to him.

He
goes on to describe Adam as ‘a peacemaker’.
As he says, ‘By his quiet
presence, he always brought us again to a still place in ourselves and created
a loving atmosphere in our home.’

‘While I tended to worry about what I did…, Adam was announcing to me that ‘being is more important than doing’.
While I was preoccupied with the way I was talked about … Adam was quietly
telling me that ‘God’s love is more important than the praise of people’.

Love
is what unites. And love is not the
preserve of Christians nor Muslims nor Jews nor able-bodied, nor successful
people but our common humanity. It is a universal gift. Everyone has the
potential to love another. It is a gift which may be given and received.

If
this is the foundation stone of the community then everyone is on an equal
footing. There aren’t some who are more successful than others nor some who are
less able. There is a community of women and men who simply love each other.

However,
it does depend on recognising the gifts which others bring and being humble
enough to accept them in a spirit of joy. For love makes people happy with
themselves and with others.

‘Many people with disabilities have been so pushed down, they don’t know they’re lovable.’ said Vanier. ‘And then the day that they discover that they are lovable and that they can trust themselves becomes whoopee!’

On
7 May, Jean Vanier died. He was 90 years old. He was a Canadian Catholic
theologian who founded L’Arche, a charitable organisation which has established
communities in thirty-five countries supporting people with developmental
disabilities. There’s one in Edinburgh and another in Inverness.

As
a young man living near Paris, he visited asylums and was appalled to see the
overcrowding and the despair. There was nothing for people to do. He befriended
Raphael and Philippe and invited them to share the hospitality of his home.
They all did the chores together and went on outings in Vanier’s car.

‘I had
no idea of starting a movement,’ he said. ‘Indeed, at one point, I thought there should be no more people involved than would fit into
my car, otherwise the jaunts would fall by the wayside.’ He believed that people with
developmental difficulties would fare better out of institutions and thought it
would be fun!

It
was a very inclusive concept which got him into difficulties with the Roman
Catholic Church. ‘You are a Catholic. How
can you live in communion with Jews and Muslims?’ He replied. ‘It is because of my love for Jesus. He is my
friend and my model. He loves everyone, no matter their culture, their
religion, their abilities or inabilities.

It
was also a transformational concept. For
him, the secret of L’Arche was that it transformed the lives of those without
disabilities as much as those with them. A lot of the care assistants had been
formed by their culture to be strong, knowledgeable and successful.

When
they came to L’Arche, they discovered that they were being invited not to be
successful but to form relationships of love and friendship with those on the bottom rung of society – the vulnerable and the weak. This was a new ordering of the world, in which they loved and enjoyed friendships too.

Following Sunday’s sermon, which featured the death of Jean Vanier, the founder of L’Arche, a member of the congregation wrote to comment on the importance of love at the heart of community.

In her e-mail, she included two sayings about love which struck a chord
with her. The first was written by
Sophocles, the Greek tragedian. ‘One
word frees us from all the weight and pain of life. That word is love.’

The second was from the writings of AA Milne and his inimitable Winnie
the Pooh. When Piglet asks, ‘How do you
spell love?’ Pooh replies immediately. ‘You
don’t spell it, you feel it!’

When I
was minister in Forth, a member of the congregation who was blind came to the
kirk with his golden Labrador. He was very well-behaved – and no-one thought it
odd that the dog was in the kirk.

When I was at Logie Kirk, two lambs were brought to the kirk door from Drumbrae Farm every Easter. They were very young and had colourful ribbons tied round their necks. Two children were deputed to bring them into the kirk – and the minister often sang to them!

I don’t
remember animals in New Kilpatrick. However, I have seen two in the parish of
Traprain. One Christmas, a member of the congregation took her dog with her to
the Christmas morning service in Prestonkirk. And yesterday, there was another at
the wedding!

It was
a beautiful husky who had been rescued by the groom. Her name was Lily and she
was the best behaved dog I have ever seen. She sat in the pew reserved for
people with disabilities.

For
most of the time, she lay with her legs spread-eagled in the aisle. But when
the congregation stood, Lily stood as well. When the congregation sat down,
Lily returned to her former pose.

She had a tiny orange banner tied round her neck celebrating the names of bride and groom and the date of the wedding. Why shouldn’t animals be found in the kirk participating in the worship of the Creator God celebrating her master’s wedding day?

St.
Francis would have approved – and I do too. For the Psalmist is very clear that
all living creatures have a vocation to praise God – wild animals and all
cattle, creeping things and flying birds. And he concludes:

I read
an intriguing article recently entitled, ‘Why Do Smart People Do Foolish
Things’. It pitted intelligence against critical thinking. The former is largely inherited. The latter is not and
crucially can be taught.

No-one
can deny the advantages of intelligence but the intelligence test doesn’t
measure everything e.g. an ability to make good decisions and a propensity to interact well with other people.

Studies
have been done on people who are intelligent and people who are critical
thinkers. Interestingly, those who have a high IQ do not necessarily live lives
which are characterised by longevity and well-being.

However
this is true of critical thinkers. Moreover, it was also discovered that people
who think critically have less negative experiences to cope with in their lives. Presumably, their ability to
think keenly has something to do with this.

‘Critical thinkers are sceptics.’ writes
Heather A Butler. They ask questions. They search for evidence. They are not fooled
by bias nor prejudice nor the prevailing view. They reason clearly and independently. And the
great thing is we can all be trained to follow in their footsteps to the enrichment
of our lives!

The
World Health Organisation has just issued fresh guidelines on arresting
cognitive decline. Whilst acknowledging that age was the biggest driver behind
the increasing incidence of dementia, other factors could be contributing to
it.

The
guidelines for living a healthier lifestyle include physical activity, a Mediterranean
diet high in fish, fruit and vegetables and the avoidance of toxins like
alcohol and drugs like tobacco.

Jim
Pearson, Director of Policy and Research in Alzheimer Scotland said, ‘Generally speaking what’s good for your
heart can also be good for your brain.’ Having heard it, we can immediately
see the wisdom of it.

We are
more inclined to separate body and mind and to think about them as different
entities. However, the brain is an organ just like the heart. What is healthy
for one must be healthy for the other. They are both integral parts of the
body.

Jesus
favoured fish in his diet and a fish was used by the persecuted Christians as a
secret symbol drawn in the sand to reveal their identity. The Greek for fish is
ichthus and this was a mnemonic for ‘Jesus
Christ, Son of God, Saviour’. Body and mind neatly nourished by fish!

Although
East Linton is an inland village, we are only seven minutes from the beach.
This is an enviable benefit. Recent studies have shown that there is a direct
correlation between living near the sea and mental health.

In
general, people are happier and healthier by the sea. And it’s not just the
ocean view. Stress levels, blood pressure and mood are all improved by going to
the seaside. In addition, sea water is rich in nutrients – magnesium, potassium
and zinc!

‘We are beginning to learn that our brains
are hardwired to react positively to water. Being near it can calm and connect
us, increase innovation and insight and even heal what was broken.’ says
Wallace J Nichols, a marine biologist.

No
wonder the first thing people do when the weather improves is to go to the
seaside! Jesus went there too. He went out fishing. He calmed a storm. He
cooked breakfast on the shore. He fed five thousand people with five loaves and
two fishes on a hillside by the sea!

In her courageous search to
discover the truth about her father, Germaine Greer travelled far to discover
that he was a fraud. He was neither a war-hero nor did he have an illustrious
past. He ran away from a foster home,
changed his name and resolved to conceal his roots.

He remained aloof from his daughter.
He never embraced her throughout his life. Nevertheless, she loved him. The
discovery of the truth could have destroyed this love, but it didn’t. She still
called him Daddy. And so her courageous
honesty revealed the reality of her own remarkable love for one who didn’t
deserve it!

What’s real cannot be
destroyed by our pursuit of the truth because the revelation of the truth makes
reality even more vivid. Germaine Greer’s love for her father couldn’t be
destroyed by her pursuit of the truth. On the contrary, her love was so real
that it became even more vivid when the truth about him was revealed.

Faith cannot remove uncertainty. With uncertainty, comes doubt. It creeps in every
day. Is there a day when we do not doubt other people, doubt ourselves, doubt
God?

Doubt is part of our faith. It is not its opposite.
Without doubt, we would have no questions to ask – and we have many. For as
well as deepening our understanding of the Bible, a mature religion has to
accommodate unanswered prayer.

And there’s much of that! Right at the heart of the
gospel is the unanswered prayer of Jesus. The book of Hebrews reflects on his excruciating
prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.

‘In the day
of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and
tears, to the one who was able to save him from death ….’ But he
didn’t. God didn’t save him from death. God didn’t answer his prayer.

So what about ours? The trouble is that some of our
prayers appear to be answered but there are critical prayers upon which our
life seems to depend that quite simply are not answered and certainly not in the way we expect.

This brings disappointment at the very least and sometimes a loss in faith. More positively, it may bring a re-examination of our understanding of God’s will and most beneficial of all – a deepening understanding of the mystery of God!

At the heart of our religion is faith not certainty.
Faith is what inspires us to take a risk, to step out into the unknown, to make
a move in a particular direction which may or may not be the right thing to do
but we do it because of our faith.

There is no certainty. We cannot be sure. All we
have are the promises of God. ‘I will be
with you always.’ is one. ‘Peace I
give you.’ is another. ‘I am the resurrection and the life.’ is
a third.

Promises are
not certainties. Paradoxically, we only discover their fulfilment when we have
faith to believe in them. It’s in the stepping out in faith that leads us to
the fulfilment of the promise.

There
were a lot of mice in the old Kilburn Church. They were all over the wooden
furniture, beautifully carved by the late Robert Thompson. It was all made out of oak and featured a mouse on every
piece.

When
Thompson was starting out in business in the late nineteenth century, he was
doing some work in a church. He said to his colleague, ‘We have plenty of work coming in to the business but still we are as
poor as church mice.’

At that point, he carved a tiny mouse on the roof rafter. Seeing the finished work, he thought it would make a distinctive signature to distinguish his work. It has immortalised him and helped to advertise his furniture.

As a
young man, he was keen to make a return to the solid oak furniture which was
celebrated in the sixteenth century. He rediscovered the adze which he used to
shave off surface oak to create a beaten pewter look. It is very attractive –
and expensive.

Meeting the mouse on the wooden lectern in the kirk reminded me of another in the field where Robert Burns was ploughing. When the plough destroyed his nest, he apologised in these immortal terms, ‘I’m truly sorry man’s dominion,/ Has broken nature’s social union.’

What can we say when the UN recently reported that one million species are facing extinction including the honeybee, the skylark and the hedgehog! The social union celebrated so beautifully in the art of Thompson and Burns is being recklessly destroyed by humanity. Therein lie the seeds of our destruction!

One of the highlights of our holiday in Yorkshire was our visit to Pickering. We saw the steam train arrive at the station and walked to the castle at the top of the hill. We spent some time in the parish church.

It has
a Saxon baptismal font which has been used continuously for the past thousand
years! In addition, the church boasts the most complete set of wall paintings
in any church in England.

They
were produced in the middle of the fifteenth century largely to educate
worshippers who were mostly illiterate. According to the guidebook, they were
known as the ‘Biblia Pauperum’ or the ‘Poor Man’s Bible’.

Several
saints were celebrated – St. George, St. Christopher, St. Edmund, St.
Catherine, St. Thomas and the beheaded John the Baptist. Mary was crowned.
Jesus was crucified, risen and ascended. The seven acts of mercy were
illustrated as well as the descent into Hell!

Less
than a century later, the paintings were whitewashed as art was banned from the
churches at the Reformation. They were accidentally rediscovered in 1852 and
covered up a second time only to be finally restored in 1876.

The
painting of the Baptist manages to compress the full story of his beheading
into a small space. Four events are
depicted – the dancing Salome, the rebuking Baptist, the beheading and the
presentation of his head on a plate!

The
artist has not created a chronological mural. All the bits are there but in
random order. The characters are dressed in medieval attire . This is a tale
not just for yesterday but for today. The arbitrary power of kings and queens is
to be respected. So, beware – if you don’t want to lose your head!

Following
the flooding in 2015, the Jorvik Centre in York was revamped at a cost of £4.2
million! The Head of Interpretation took the opportunity to incorporate recent
research into the displays.

When it
opened in 1984, the focus was on the Vikings and the recent discovery that York
had been a Viking city. The part played by Christianity in influencing the
Vikings had not been fully acknowledged. As a result of more recent research,
this has been remedied.

One of
the most prominent artefacts is a Celtic Cross featuring a Viking warrior as
well as the traditional knot work. It was a replica of a tenth century cross
which we saw for ourselves in the delightful Middleton Church on the way to
Pickering.

It was
one of five ancient crosses displayed in the kirk celebrating its ancient
origin. We were lucky to see them because the church was being repainted and
all its other furnishings were under covers.

We
enjoyed the kirkyard. It wasn’t manicured like Scottish graveyards. It had been
allowed to grow wild – primroses, bluebells, campion, forget-me-nots and
dandelions growing in profusion. It was all the more attractive because it had
been valued as a wildlife habitat.

As we
stood there enjoying the peace on a very sunny day, we heard the cuckoo. The
last time we heard it was at Cuddy’s Cave as we walked to Lindisfarne in 2013.
Although it is the most distinctive of birdsongs, we hardly hear it now. It was
an instant reminder of a lost but privileged outdoor childhood!

When we
think of refugees, we think of their immediate need of food, shelter, safety
and peace. This fools us into thinking that refugees are unlike us and, worse
still, have nothing to give us.

One of
the most remarkable refugees to arrive on these shores is Caucher Birkar who lived
on the border between Iran and Iraq. It wasn’t the best of places to be during
the Iran-Iraq War. Being Kurdish meant that he and his family were hated by
both sides.

He was
the son of a peasant whose family had land until 1978 when it was confiscated.
His education gave him a place in Tehran University to study mathematics. In
his third year, he made his escape to Britain.

By
chance, he was settled in Nottingham whose university has a strong mathematics
department. He wandered in to see Professor Fesenko. Although he spoke in
broken English, Birkar was fluent in the language of mathematics.

He was
enrolled to do a PhD. He became an academic at Cambridge. He made extraordinary
discoveries in the field of algebraic geometry and has just been awarded the
Fields Medal. This is equivalent to a
Nobel Prize and is only awarded to people under forty!

‘Because of the politics relating to refugees
you mostly see negative aspects in the news,’ says Birkar. ‘Go beyond the negative and being a
refugee and a scientist is not a strange thing.’ Perhaps Einstein is the
most famous example!

Of all
the people who influenced his decision to study mathematics, the most
surprising was his brother who was six years older. When Birkar was ten, his
brother started to teach him more advanced mathematics because, as his brother
said, ‘These things are beautiful!

Lebanon
has two significant neighbours – Syria and Israel/Palestine. As a result of
warfare and unrest, it has become a safe if not an impoverished haven for
Palestinian and Syrian refugees.

The
statistics are staggering. The Lebanon has a population of six million people.
Believe it or not, it is estimated that the number of Syrian refugees who have
crossed the border because of the bloodshed is now 1.5million!

This
means that there is one refugee for every four Lebanese. How do they manage
this extraordinary situation? With great
difficulty! It makes me feel ashamed
when I think about the UK’s reluctance to do more to help.

With
Christian Aid Week beginning this weekend, we may look at things differently. If
we are unwilling to welcome larger numbers of refugees into our country,
perhaps we could give more money to alleviate some of the difficulties which
Lebanon is facing in fulfilling the ministry of a good neighbour.

When I
was younger, I read Victor Hugo’s intriguing novel about Quasimodo, the
hunchback and bell-ringer at Notre Dame de Paris. It had been commissioned to
replicate the hugely popular historical novels of Sir Walter Scott. It was written within five months.

It had
two consequences. Firstly, it embedded the cathedral in the popular imagination
of the people. Secondly, it exposed the cathedral’s
disrepair. It had been badly damaged by the vandalism of the French Revolution.

As a
result, a competition was created to ensure its restoration. However, poor
quality stone was used to complete the project. Apparently, it has been
crumbling ever since! After the fire, it is the stonework which remains!

Even
work which is undertaken to build up the church and glorify God’s name may be done on the cheap without regard to the
long-term consequences. Failing to give of our best in a spirit of generosity
has dramatic consequences. Ananias and Sapphira didn’t live to tell the tale!

Abigail
Disney is the granddaughter of Walt Disney’s brother. In a recent interview,
she spoke about her struggle with inherited wealth. She believes wealth
divorces people from reality and as a consequence has given away 70 million
dollars of her inheritance.

She
spoke about the Boeing 737 which her
father purchased as a private jet. On one occasion, she travelled in it alone
with all the attendant staff, fuel costs and excessive carbon footprint. It
made her sick!

‘It’s fundamental to remember that you’re just
a member of the human race, like everyone else, and there’s nothing about your
money that makes you better …’ she said. ‘If you don’t know that and you have money,
it’s the road to hell.’

She was
looking down on everyone. He was looking round for more excitement. She was
looking back on the good old days. He was looking away from the beggar. She was
looking in – to herself!

And
where were you looking – down, round, back, away, in or up? Up above the proud
and the wistful, up above the restless and the merciless, up above the
selfishness of our world into the very presence of God?

Up,
because you can’t look down on a cross! Up to a head crowned with thorns, up to
hands pierced with nails, up to a wounded heart which draws me out of myself,
out of my past, out of my world, up into that place where love is come again!

He wanted to be a minister – but he wasn’t accepted by the church. He turned to art – but he wasn’t successful. He painted 869 pictures – but he only sold one!

His paintings weren’t valuable then – but they are now! Last year, one was sold for over fifty million pounds – but he died in poverty, by his own hand, rejected by everyone except his brother!

What
beauty he has given to the world – but it has only been appreciated in death.
Don’t let the day pass without appreciating your brother or your sister, your neighbour
or friend. Who knows? Vincent van Gogh may be living next door!

I once knew a woman in a
long-term psychiatric hospital who endured a burden of suffering which she once
described very accurately as ‘a living
sorrow’. Her burden was made much worse because she had to carry it
herself.

There
was little I could do to ease the burden except be there and sometimes that was
difficult too. Often she would say that she could only continue living because
of God’s strength. Every day her prayer was for peace of mind.

Although
it wasn’t always answered, it didn’t cause her to lose her faith. And although she had no obvious reason
to celebrate the love of God, she never gave up loving him. In this way, she
strengthened my faith.

On one
occasion, she told me her favourite prayer and despite her depression, her physical
disability and difficulties in her speech, she invited me, her minister, to
join her in prayer and without faltering, she said:

Yesterday,
the Stenton Singers put on a very imaginative and inspiring concert in
Prestonkirk. They are a well-established choir working under the baton of Lynda
Jeffrey, regularly raising funds for charity. This time it was for LORD, Late Onset
Retinal Regeneration.

There
were two major song cycles. The first was Stanford’s energetic and thoughtful, ‘Songs
of the Fleet’. The listener was well-rewarded by the choir’s enthusiasm in ‘The
Song of the Sou’wester’ and its sincerity in the Fare Well with its references
to death, used to great effect in Great War commemorations.

The
second was ‘Days that Changed the World’. The words were by Charles Bennett and
the music by Bob Chilcott. They celebrated the invention of the printing press,
the abolition of slavery and the successes and failures of the Wright brothers’
attempts to fly! They were all very engaging and provided much stimulus for the
imagination!

There
were three accomplished solo singers and two instrumentalists – the one playing
a Handel sonata on the treble recorder and the other Gaelic airs on the clarsach.
All very refreshing. John Anderson was the accompanist and did a brilliant job
especially in the wonderful song cycle accompaniments.

My all
time favourite was a very unusual song written by Bob Chilcott, ‘Like a Singing
Bird’. It surprised and delighted in equal measure. For one of Scotland’s most
famous love songs, ‘My luv is like a red, red rose’ became the wonderful foil for Christina Rossetti’s poem, ‘My
heart is like a singing bird’. It was a magical moment when the two became one!

Songs
from Carousel and Verdi’s Nabucco together with a very popular ‘Johnnie Cope’
completed the line-up. Lynda Jeffrey is much to be admired. Her challenging
ways bring thoughtfulness and vitality in equal measure to choir and concert
goer. This is one concert by the Singers which should not have been missed.

It is
extraordinary what some people will do to steal a march others. When it comes
to choosing the best school for your child, some people actually move house to
set up home in a more desirable school catchment area.

When it
comes to enrolling your child at a faith school, there is an expectation that
parents will be regular attenders at church. A recent poll indicated that one in eight parents who attended
church to secure their child’s place in a popular faith school was an atheist!

One
atheist blamed the state of comprehensive education. ‘It’s an abhorrent situation.’ he said. ‘And one that is made worse when parents are forced to play a system
that they didn’t create and are then
accused of being odious, despicable hypocrites!’

What he didn’t say was that the two years worshipping in his local parish church was so enlightening that he decided to stay, seek baptism, confirmation and maybe ordination! But perhaps this is what will happen to his child. It would if our prayers and not his were answered!

In a
recent interview, Erling Kagge was talking about his love of walking. He has
walked to both poles and climbed Everest. He has navigated the sewers in New
York and walked the length and breadth of LA. It took four days.

Many
creative thinkers were also avid walkers – the Greek philosophers, the romantic
composers, Darwin and Dickens. The scientists have confirmed a causal
relationship between walking and creativity. ‘We think with our entire bodies,’ said Kagge.

‘When we move the body, we also move our
thoughts, our emotions, everything frees up and circulate.’ he
continued. ‘It’s good to think when you
walk but it’s even better not to. That’s when you find answers to questions you
didn’t even know you had.’

A
fortnight ago, astronomers revealed the first close-up images of a huge black
hole. They offer scientists the opportunity to marry Einstein’s theory of
relativity to the world of quantum mechanics. In a black hole everything is
crushed into an infinitely small space.

This is
the elusive, ‘Theory of Everything’ which Stephen Hawking spent a large part of
his life trying to unravel. The most interesting thing about black holes is
that they were discovered long before they were observed in the universe.

The
discovery was entirely theoretical. The mathematics laid bare their existence
but the scientists had to wait three decades before they found any signs of
them in the universe. Perhaps Plato was right afterall when he said, ‘God is a geometer!’

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Details

Stenton -
services are held every Sunday at 9.30 a.m.Prestonkirk -
services are held every Sunday at 11a.m.
Holy Communion is celebrated after morning worship on the first Sunday of every month except February, June and October when it is celebrated during the service.Whittingehame -occasional services are held here throughout the year.

The minister

The Minister of the Parish of Traprain isRev. David D. Scott B.Sc BD
The Manse of Traprain
Preston Road
East Linton
EH40 3DS